Biman Banerjee elected West Bengal assembly speaker

Trinamool MLA Biman Banerjee was elected speaker of the West Bengal assembly on Monday without hindrance as the Left Front did not put up a candidate for the post.

Soon after the election was over, the chief minister congratulated him and asked him to conduct the proceedings of the house giving more importance to the sensitivities of the opposition bench than the ruling side.

Leader of the opposition Suryakanta Mishra welcomed Mamata Banerjee’s proposal, saying that the opposition were honoured.

After Biman Banerjee was elected, Suryakanta Mishra, Prabodh Chandra Sinha and Subhash Nashkar took him to the speaker’s chair. The speaker also met his predecessor, Hasim Abdul Halim, and exchanged courtesies.

CPI(M) MLA Abdul Rezzak Mollah was seen shaking hands with the chief minister in the house.

Later, Surya Kanta Mishra met Mamata Banerjee at her chamber wished to meet her to discuss violence in the state after the election results were declared on May 13. The chief minister has agreed to meet them at Writers’ Buildings on June 3.

In another development, Mamata Banerjee set a precedent by paying Rs 2 lakh from her personal account for renovating her chamber as well as the rooms of a couple of her secretaries at Writers’ Buildings.

“I needed to renovate the rooms for creating a comfortable atmosphere for working long hours. Because of the financial crisis the state exchequer is going through, I decided to pay from my personal account,” she said.

“I am not criticisng the taste of my predecessor here. He had decorated the room according to his own taste and comfort and I did it according to my taste and comfort,” the CM said, insisting that there was nothing “political” in this “change”.

She has changed the tick-brown colour of the walls to white while a wooden floor has replaced the carpeted floor. Wooden chairs with cushions have replaced the leather-covered chairs of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee regime. The semi-oval table of the chief minister has given way to a half-circle-shaped one.